Trip Report: Cosumnes River Preserve

Cosumnes River Preserve, Galt, California, USA
January 2017

Duck, var.

Another day in paradise, another trip to a local birding destination. These pictures were taken when your amateurnithologist found himself with some unusual time off and was able to go on some fun day trips to birding locales slightly further afield.

Cinnamon Teal, has a youtube prank video series

Today's pictures come from the Consumnes River Preserve and the adjacent Woodbridge River Preserve in eyebrow-raisingly named Galt, California. The preserves are part of California's heavily farmed central valley and the Consumnes River represents the last free flowing river of the valley. Located between Sacramento and Stockton, there are 46,000 acres of protected land, 40,000 of which are farmed.

Green-winged Teal couple, collect salt and pepper shakers

It's an important spot for birds, and your amateurnithologist was blown away by the variety and sheer quantity of birds present. And that makes a lot of sense, since this spot is part of the Pacific Flyway, one of the 4 major migration routes for American birds. Among its 250 native bird species are the rare Sandhill Cranes (got em') and Tri-colored Blackbirds (WHEN?). Both the Audubon Society and the American Bird Conservancy have declared it an "Important Bird Area."

Sandhill Crane, always stands next to shorter birds to make himself appear taller

The preserve itself is beautiful and well-maintained, and given that we attended in the middle of the day, on a weekday, it was surprisingly well-attended, mostly by like-minded bird people. Some serious scopes were on display.

White-fronted Goose, high tolerance for crowds

It was mostly a waterfowlful affair, and all manner of ducks and geese and assorted others were on display. I had the great experience of getting a much, much better shot of a Northern Pintail immediately after I had posted a blog about him. Such is the life of a bird blogger. We appeared to be right in the middle of White-fronted Goose migration, who got riled up and all took off together and blacked out the sky a few times.

Northern Pintail, always acts weird when you try to take a picture of him

Best spots for me were the rarely observed Sora (still have no idea how I spotted him in the reeds) and the vaunted and endangered Sandhill Crane. It was my first time getting a shot of the California subspecies (all previous cranes I had seen were in Florida). Other birds seen, but not included in this photo essay included Great Egret (in breeding plumage), Northern Shoveler, Belted Kingfisher, Canada Geese, American Kestrel, and Black-necked Stilt.

Sora, loves to do amateur research on topics that interest her

Overall I would give Galt, CA objectively high marks. It's a veritable fountainhead of birds, and you won't find yourself shrugging off enough birds to fill a whole atlas. Take the train. Go Ayn-y time.

Final Rating: Yes

Sora & Martin Luther King Regional Shoreline

Sora aka. Sora Rail, aka. Sora Crake
Arrowhead Marsh, Oakland, California, USA
December 2014
Member of the Rails, Coots, and Gallinules Family
§An Expression of Soras§

~true bird fact~ Soras are the most widely distributed and populous member of the Rail family in North America. They are also the most frequently hunted. Who knows why people do these things, but anyway, their population has remained fairly stable because of their high breeding rate. Good job Soras!

Silent defender of the marsh
Has an air of knowing everything, but really just does a lot of research
Strongly committed to ethical behavior, sometimes to the detriment of his own life
Never really feels like he has done enough

Other denizens of Arrowhead Marsh at MLK Regional Shoreline, In beautiful Oakland, Califonia:

Great Egret
has put a new focus on spending time with the family




American Coots
heard about a really great sale

Black-necked Stilt chronic single-hood is not as fun as it used to be

Burrowing Owl
on sabbatical to write a book

Ridgway's Rail

 
Ridgway's Rail (formerly California Clapper Rail)
Arrowhead Marsh, Oakland, California, USA
December 2014
Member of the Rails, Coots, and Gallinules Family
§An Audience of Rails§

~true bird fact~ Ridgeway's Rail is an extremely 'new' bird. How new? He's only been an official bird since July of 2014! What does this mean? Well, every once in a while, the American Birding Association makes some calls about which birds are actually different from each other (and have been all along). You may remember the ABA as the organization that 'recognized' the Purple Swamp Hen from an earlier Am-Ornithologist Exclusive. Presumably someone has granted them the authority to do this, and they do so with their increasing scientific understanding of bird biology and evolution and whatnot. Anyway, it was determined that the Californian sub-species of The Clapper Rail is actually a whole different bird. They live pretty much only in the Bay Area.

Loves to cuddle
Intelligent and sensitive. Curls up with a good book (fiction, poetry)
Privileged (despite the whole 'endangered species thing') 
Doesn't understand this modern violent world. Shakes her head sadly

How Endangered Are They? There are somewhere between 1000 and 3000 of these birds left living in the wild depending upon who you ask. The trusting and apparently tasty Ridgway's Rail never recovered from over-hunting that occurred during California's gold rush, and numbers have been kept low by habitat destruction and non-native predators. This story isn't all sad, however, since as recently 1992 there were only 240 (!) of these birds. Even at the low numbers above, it's clear the rail is making some headway.

Who's this Ridgway Guy?

Robert Ridgway lived from 1850-1929 and was a major modern ornithological presence in America. He worked primarily for the Smithsonian as Curator of Birds, which is quite a title, especially since he held it for 43 years. He also was a founding member and early president of The American Ornithologist's Union. Ridgway was primarily a names and classifications kinda guy and he ended up describing more American species of birds than any other, probably mostly by noticing the minor distinctions that now set this rail apart. Unlike previous 'featured naturalist', the famously wrong WJ Swainson, Ridgway's classifications have stood the test of time so well that modern taxonomist's have a maxim that invokes him "Rule #1: Ridgway was right".

Common Gallinule and Purple Gallinule

Today on amateurnithologist we bring you two similar members of the rail family who are, in fact, different birds. Looking at these two, you might not see how a mistake could be made, since once is so much more colorful than the other. However, these are swamp birds, meaning you're often going to be observing them under less-than ideal conditions. If you've got poor light, or the bird is covered with muck, or hiding among reeds, you might miss the Purple Gallinule's distinctive iridescent green and blue feathers, especially if you've seen a dozen Common Gallinules already that day. Or maybe you're trying to identify juvenile birds. Who knows what you're doing out there in the swamp. Amateurnithologist doesn't judge you.

Let's look at these birds
Common Gallinule aka. Common Moorhen aka. Florida Gallinule aka. Swamp Chicken (colloq.)
Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Delray Beach, Florida, USA
Member of the Rails, Gallinules, and Coots Family
§A Plump of Moorhens§

~true bird fact~ Like another bird he is commonly confused with, the American Coot, Common Gallinule has some neat feet.  They lack webbing and have long toes, which they can use just as easily to swim as to walk atop floating vegetation.

Starts every morning with a cup of coffee
Pragmatist
Gets impatient with wishy-washy people
Likes hats

Purple Gallinule aka. Yellow-legged Gallinule
Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Delray Beach, Florida, USA
Member of the Rails, Gallinules, and Coots Family

~true bird fact~ The fact that Florida even has Purple Gallinules at all is a testament to their incredible powers of travel. Although they look like kind of dopey fliers, they must have something going on. They're essentially a South American bird, but regularly make it all the way to destinations like Canada, the Northern US, South Africa (?), and Europe (!?).

Expects a lot from her friends
Has a sensitive heart
Good taste, but doesn't need things that are 'fancy'
Lives out her ideals in a way that most don't

So how do you tell these guys apart? The easiest way, as I alluded to before, is not always the color. You need to get a really good look to tell the difference in real life, when you're far away. A good thing to look for is the beak, especially the extended plate-y part above it. If it's just red, you've got a common Gallinule, if it's pale or light blue you've got a Purple, and if it's not there at all you're looking at a coot. Another distinguishing feature is that the Common Gallinule has a white stripe along her side. I hope this helps you next time you have to pick a Gallinule out of a police lineup or something.

Purple Swamp Hen!

I have never used an exclamation mark in the title of one of my blogs before (nb: this may not be true, but I'm not going to check), so you can already tell that something exciting is going on. This may be the closest your fav. bird blog (FBB) comes to a juicy exclusive. Yes, more exciting than the actual wild parrots of telegraph hill, or that burrowing owl interview we landed back in december. Today, I bring you the Purple Swamp Hen, the most recent bird to officially be welcomed to America. Usually only found in the mysterious eastern hemisphere kingdoms of Africa, Australia, The Middle East, and Asia, he is a non-native species that has now taken enough of a toe-hold that he is considered to be a more or less permanent part of our natural fauna.

His meteoric rise to official bird-dom began in the late 90's when he escaped from bird collectors in south Floirda. Although for a while conservationists attempted to exterminate the invasive species, the Purple Swamp Hen was able to spread and multiply to the point where the American Birding Association finally declared him to be an official 'checklist bird' in 2013 (he is number 977 for those curious about such things). We understand that the topic of non-native species is a sticky one, but we are really happy for Purple Swamp Hen and welcome him with open arms. He is really cool looking. Without further ado-
Purple Swamp Hen aka. pūkeko aka. Sultana Bird
Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Delray Beach, Florida, USA
Member of the Rails, Gallinules, and Coots Family

~true bird fact~ Ancient Romans of aristocratic classes often kept Purple Swamp Hens as decorative pets at large villas and mansions (think peacocks at Southern Estates). Romans didn't eat these birds and regarded them as noble.

~true bird myth~ The native Maori people of New Zealand and Samoa also saw the Purple Swamp Hen as a bird with leadership qualities. Only elders were allowed to keep them as pets, and they were, again, never eaten. They were sometimes regraded to be earthly incarnations of trickster demons called Vave. Perhaps they are.


Super in-shape. One ripped bird.
Reacts quickly and decisively, even in situations where he is not the most qualified bird
Roughhouses with his friends
Surprisingly has a real musical talent

American Coot

American Coot
Oakland, California, USA
Member of the Coots and Rails Family
§A Covert of Coots§

~true bird fact~ Coots are common enough all over the country that scientists use their population to measure the impact of the myriad environmental fiascoes we visit upon ourselves. Thanks Coot!

Name has been misappropriated to mean 'crazy person', but this bird only speaks the truth
Believes in prophetic dreams
Has a strong shared cultural memory and knows what his land used to be like a long time ago
Says a lot with his silence